Churches in Context

When we consider the cultural aspect of worship in the church, it is confirmed that it’s usually what we consider in our own being. Culture is defined as things that we consider to make up and create in our society — meaning that we create our own story of how we interpret culture. Harvie Conn, the author of the article “Cultural Analysis” speaks about his perspective of culture. He states that the idea of culture is becoming a substitute that is fading through a sense of divinity and transcendence. We as a culture for corporate worship have a demand to create a perspective that involves divinity and transcendence in every part of a corporate cultural worship. Throughout this blog, I will explain in detail an understanding of the relationship between the Church and Cultural worship. I will also speak on practical ways that we as a society can be able to contextualize ministry and what it means for us in corporate worship.

There has always been a relationship that involves worship and culture. For example, in the New Testament, Romans 12:2 speaks about how we are not to be conformed to the world but be ye transformed in the renewing of our minds. As we create a way for worship and culture, it is our design to ensure we are not placed into conformity.

Before we consider worship and culture, we must understand the elements of culture and why they are consistently important. One of the main elements of culture is History. In our society, History has dwelled upon Christianity and culture. It helps us to understand each element of the person and how they value things in our cultural world.

Christ & Culture

In the book Christ & Culture, H. Richard Niebuhr consistently speaks of the relationships between Christ and Worship. In his book, he describes Christ and culture in 5 different themes: Christ against culture, Christ of culture, Christ above culture, Christ and culture in paradox, Christ the transformer of culture.

Christ Against Culture is a culture that particularly is based on the outside of the church that is viewed with a high degree of suspicion. Within some of our church community, we face individuals who depart from the faith because they have decided to believe in the things of the world. 1 Timothy 4:1–4 speaks clearly about this when it expresses that people will depart from their faith and will devote themselves to false teachings and deceitful spirits. Christ of Culture is a cultural expression that is wholly accepted uncritically and is celebrated as a good thing for the culture. They view that the Christ lives in the culture and it views that Christ changes throughout the culture. Christ Above Culture is expressed as basically good for culture. However, it’s needed to be perfected by the Christian revelation and the work of the church. The Christ and culture in paradox is seen as a good human culture for good creation that has also been tainted by sin. Christ the Transformer of Culture means that we have a mandate where change is needed in the culture.

Practical Considerations

With this information in mind, we must consider practical ways that our church culture can contextualize ministry and what it means for corporate worship. A practical way is to consider events to host that will assist individuals from different cultures to interact in a way that involves them and their input within the church. Another practical way is meeting them where they are. We as a church have to understand the culture they particularly live in so we can able to incorporate cultural corporate worship with them.